Run to Ground
by sabra jaguar
Summary: Eddie confronts Barry with some incriminating evidence.


Alternate take on how Eddie might have learned Barry was the Flash. I tried to keep it canon-compliant but the show had other ideas. Thanks to B34chBum94 for beta-reading!

Mistakes are mine, characters are not.

* * *

"Hey, Barry, got a minute?"

Barry Allen glanced up at the sound of his visitor's voice. There stood Eddie Thawne in the doorway, a file folder in his hand. _Probably wants me to look over some evidence for a case he's working on_ , Barry figured. "Oh, yeah, Eddie, be with you in a sec." He started to stand up, but Eddie shook his head.

"No, Barry. Don't get up." He held one hand out as though the gesture could physically keep Barry in his seat. "Just stay right where you are, you hear me? Don't move."

Barry tried to laugh off the worry that was starting to build up inside him. "This is starting to sound like one of those conversations where you tell me to sit, and I say I'd rather stand, and…" He saw the unusually grim expression on Eddie's face and the worry suddenly seemed a lot more justified. "What happened? Is it Joe? Iris? Are they hurt?"

Eddie sighed, very deliberately locking the door behind him before moving over to where Barry sat. Barry tensed. Something was very wrong with the way Eddie moved towards him, slowly and cautiously, as though he saw Barry as a serious threat he was trying to keep at bay. Barry felt like a cornered animal, suddenly wanting nothing more than to bolt from the room. "Eddie? What's going on?"

"Just wanted to make sure it took an extra second for you to get away if you decided to run."

Barry's eyes widened. "What? Eddie, what are you …"

Eddie slapped the file folder down in front of him. Papers spilled out all over his workspace. The top one, a police sketch, stared up at Barry with uncomfortably familiar eyes. He glanced up, stunned from the artist's surprisingly accurate rendition of his own face, to see Eddie scrubbing a hand through his hair. The young detective glared down at him, his expression a chaotic mix of frustration, anger and just a little bit of...fear?

"A few weeks ago, a would-be mugger was brought in, ranting about how his potential victim laughed in his face, right after he'd pulled a gun on him."

Barry groaned, knowing instantly where Eddie was going with his story. He remembered the mugger he'd stripped of gun, and pants, before dragging an officer to the scene to make the arrest. He'd had so much fun using his speed to mess with his attacker, at the time. Of course _now_ that fun would come back to bite him. How often had Oliver warned him he was getting complacent, relying too much on his speed to keep him safe? He'd assumed his almost-mugger would be so shaken up by the incident he'd have a hard time describing the face he saw in the mirror, much less some random guy he tried to rob on the street. Anyway, what suspected criminal would want to relate the kind of story that not only made them look insane, but could be used against them in court?

Eddie laughed humorlessly, seeming to read Barry's mind. "Yeah, after that story, most of us thought the guy was crazy. But the arresting officer couldn't explain how he arrived there, and the way the mugger described the guy who disappeared…well, he made him sound like he might be the Flash. I had him describe the man he tried to mug to a sketch artist and…you see the result there in front of you. So, anything you want to tell me, Barry?" Eddie leaned over the work table, looming over the still-seated Barry. He stared Barry down until the latter had to fight the urge to squirm in his chair. Barry's gaze riveted on the service weapon Eddie still wore, all too conspicuously, under his suit coat. He knew Eddie couldn't shoot him—Barry was much too fast for a bullet to hit him—but knowing that his friend might feel justified to draw the weapon on him, that Eddie was scared enough to confront him armed… It was a sobering thought.

"You're right. I'm the Flash," Barry said quietly. He could try to bluff his way out, but what was the point? Eddie had an eyewitness testimony to take to the captain. While his evidence might not be reliable enough to prove the Flash's identity, it could cast some serious doubt in a lot of minds about Barry's credibility, something that needed to be above reproach in his line of work. He shuddered to think what might happen with those cases he'd worked on if his coworkers found out he'd been keeping this kind of secret. And if they had him in a line-up? The suspicions alone would destroy him.

"What are you going to do now? Call in your task force?" The last came out more bitterly than Barry had intended.

"I don't know, Allen. Do I need to? I already know how dangerous you can be," the detective growled. His hands gripped the edge of Barry's workstation, fingers digging into the table as though he wanted to tear it apart. He took a deep breath, relaxing his grip with an obvious effort. From the bruises on Eddie's hands, Barry guessed Eddie must have murdered the punching bag in the gym before coming to the lab to confront him. He hoped Eddie had worked out most of his aggression on the hapless bag, but from the looks of things, he'd reserved at least a little for Barry. "I'm guessing Iris doesn't know? I know she's met with you privately as the Flash. She hasn't been hiding this from me, has she?" Eddie asked, almost anxiously. Barry shook his head and the other man slumped, visibly relieved. "Iris has a bit of a blind spot when it comes to you, doesn't she, Allen? She seems to think you tell her everything, but she doesn't know the really big secrets you keep. She doesn't know you're the Flash…she doesn't know how much you love her…"

"Hey, I've never tried to get between you and her!" Eddie nodded, as though Barry's outburst had just confirmed another suspicion, and Barry's heart sank. He was just revealing all his secrets right now, wasn't he? Maybe they should have taken this conversation to one of the interrogation rooms. Why not give his confession a more appropriate setting?

With nothing left for him to hide, Barry continued, "She wants you, not me. I know how much it would upset her if I tried to force Iris to choose between us. I don't want to lose her as a friend and I'd-I'd never hurt her like that." _Or you either_ , Barry added in his mind, more grudgingly but no less genuinely. He did consider Eddie a friend, though Barry didn't know how much longer he'd be able to do so.

For the first time since Eddie walked in the lab, his expression softened, and he even smiled slightly. "I do know that, Barry. I think that's the one thing I am certain of about you right now. You're a good guy. That's why I came to you first. I wanted to hear you out before I went to Captain Singh with this." He sighed. "And if you're a good guy, then that must mean the Flash is a good guy, too. Although it's a little hard to believe that way when all I can think about is the Flash nearly beating me to death."

Barry's face reddened with renewed guilt. "Yeah, I'm really sorry about that. If it makes you feel any better, I was kind of under an outside influence. Ask Joe; I was a jerk to him too…and a lot of other people. I really am sorry that I hurt you and Iris that night. I hate thinking that I could hurt the people I care about so badly." At least one good thing came from the reveal; Barry could finally ask forgiveness for his actions that night.

Eddie avoided looking at Barry throughout his apology. Barry wasn't sure if it was because Eddie was just uncomfortable with sharing feelings, if he was having a hard time trusting him because of those memories of nearly getting killed by the Flash's hand, or if he was afraid Barry might decide he wanted a rematch. Maybe it was the humiliation of finding out the man who'd beaten him so badly was Barry Allen, forensics nerd.

Barry watched Eddie with all the anxiety of a convicted man awaiting pronouncement of his sentence. He fought to keep his hands from shaking as he waited for the detective to sort through his conflicted feelings about the Flash. Would Eddie decide Barry Allen was still a trusted friend and colleague, or a threat to be stopped? What if Eddie tried to arrest him there in the lab? Barry didn't want to run, but with the meta-human threat to the city, would he have any other choice if Eddie tried to take him into custody? His mind raced with all the possible outcomes, each one worse than the last.

Finally Eddie spoke. "I had been wondering why you were trying so hard to do stuff for me while I was in the hospital after the fight. And why you, of all people, would bring me flowers that night. Makes more sense now." He snorted lightly. "Actually, I think I find it easier to accept that it wasn't the real you that night than to think that you're really a sadistic vigilante menace who terrorizes Central City in a red suit."

Barry grinned at the slightly teasing tone in Eddie's voice, the tension beginning to bleed from his body. Eddie was on his side. Or at least, wasn't going to turn him in just yet. "Thanks…your support really means a lot." He couldn't resist adding, "I'll remember it when I'm out there doing the vigilante menace thing in my red suit."


End file.
